Asset Management is a Team Sport – The Local Governments Experience

Asset management is a team sport, but how do you make sure everyone is on the team and knows the rules and what position they have to play? The Cowichan Valley Regional District received Board approval of its Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP) in January 2020, which established the vision for sustainable service delivery. The SAMP identifies areas for improvement, generally with the common theme that staff did not always know where they fit in. Enter the ‘Staff Capability Improvement Plan’. This plan identified training opportunities with the intention of building staff knowledge and understanding of asset management best practices. An additional outcome of implementing this plan was the vertical integration within departments, and the horizontal integration between departments as managers and staff across all departments completed training together. These training opportunities also enabled regional integration between the CVRD and other local governments. It was through FCM’s funding of PEMAC’s Certified Asset Management Professional program, that brought Austin, Tauseef and Keir together to become management champions, within their respective departments, organization and the region. This talk will showcase their challenges and successes along their journey to break down the operational silos within the CVRD.